TRANSCRIPT

EPISODE 11: RECOUNTING THE PAST

Hello. Im Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

Today were going to look at ways to talk about something thats happened in the
past, and well also have a look at ways to form compound and complex sentences.
First, were going to listen to a woman talk about a dramatic event in her past. Four
years ago, she had a stroke a blood vessel burst in her brain.
Heres what happened to her.
A stroke is whereby the blood supply to the brain is cut off. The major signs of
having had a stroke that most people would equate with is weakness, so paralysis of
an arm, leg or face. In others it can be a loss of speech or inability to communicate.
Others may have loss of vision or a combination of all those things.
I was just so physically fit and also emotionally I was on top of the world. I had a
really good job at that time, and I was getting married.
I just felt terribly nauseous and I woke up with pins and needles down one side of my
leg, and then it worked its way up towards my arm and across.
I was just immobile. I couldn't move. I couldn't walk. I was paralysed on this side of
my body.
Simone is telling her story. She is giving a recount of what happened to her and how
she was affected.
A recount is a story about past events, usually in the order in which they occur.
Lets take another look at a clip from todays episode. Listen for the past tense verbs
in Simones story.
I was just so physically fit and also
emotionally I was on top of the world. I had
a really good job at this time, and I was
getting married.
She says I was so physically fit, I was on
top of the world. I had a really good job
Here, was and had are past tense verbs.
Theyre irregular verbs.
Lets compare the three forms of these irregular verbs.

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From the infinitive form of the verb to be, we

can form the simple present forms: am, is
and are; and we can also make the simple
past forms was or were.
Notice that the verb to be is the only verb in
English that has two past tense forms. All
others just have one.
Lets do the same for the verb to have.
What is the simple present for of the verb to
have?
Has, or have.
And the simple past form?
Had.
When you learn new verbs, its important to
learn them with all their different forms, so
make sure you write verbs down in a
notebook, and work out all their different
tenses as well.
When you are recounting a story that
happened in the past, youll need to use all
these simple past tense forms of verbs.
Youll also need to use a variety of transition signals - words that help to order the
events.
Using transition signals will help the reader or listener follow the order of events in
the story.
Listen for the transition signal in this clip.
I just felt terribly nauseous and I woke up with pins and needles down one side of my
leg, and then it worked its way up towards my arm and across.
She uses the word then. Then is very common in informal spoken language, so
are other more informal transition signals like next or after that.
Simone said she had a feeling of pins and needles in her leg. Then it worked its
way to her arm.
In more formal language, you might find transition signals like at first or
subsequently, or after a while.

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If we wanted to make Simones story clearer, we could add some transition signals to
her story.
If we were writing her story, we might use more formal transition signals.
Simone had a feeling of pins and needles in her leg. Then it worked its way to her
arm.
We might say:
At first, Simone had a feeling of pins and needles in her leg. After a while, it
worked its way to her arm.
Notice that transition signals like this are often followed by commas.
Adding transition signals has made Simones story clearer. You can more easily see
the order of events. This is very important in more formal language.
Try to make sure you learn and use a number of different transition signals.
Now lets have another listen to a clip of Simone talking about her illness.
Pay attention to the type of sentences that Simone uses. Are the sentences simple,
compound or complex?
It worked its way up towards my arm and across. I was just immobile. I couldn't
move. I couldn't walk. I was paralysed on this side of my body.
Most of the sentences that Simone uses are simple sentences.
If we wanted to write an account of Simones illness, we could join up some of these
sentences to make compound and complex sentences.
We form compound and complex sentences by joining simple sentences and
phrases together.
Simone says:
I was just immobile. I couldnt move. I couldnt walk.
But we could edit this to say:
I was just immobile. I couldnt move or walk.
Or :
I was just immobile. I could neither move nor walk.
OK, now lets finish with a quick look at the words used in the clip. Listen to the clip
one more time, and then well talk about a quick way to build your vocabulary.

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Listen again
I was just immobile. I couldn't move. I couldn't walk. I was paralysed on this side of
my body.
Simone says she was immobile.
The prefix im- is used to make the opposites of words beginning with m or p.
Im- means not, so immobile is the opposite of mobile it means not mobile.
So we can have mobile and immobile,
mature, and immature,
polite and impolite,
patient and impatient.
Knowing the opposites of words is very important.
Many words just have a different word that means the opposite, like:
hot, cold, happy, sad, in, out up, down;
but other words take prefixes that mean not like un-, de-, dis, in-.
Listen to some of the clip again. Then well look at a how a few more opposites are
formed.
The major signs of having had a stroke that most people would equate with is
weakness, so paralysis of an arm, leg or face. In others it can be a loss of speech or
inability to communicate.
I was just so physically fit and also emotionally I was on top of the world.
He says a sign of a stroke can be an inability to communicate.
He uses the in- prefix meaning not.
Inability means not having the ability, and heres a few more opposites.
She says she was physically fit, emotionally on top of the world.
The opposite of fit is unfit.
The opposite of emotionally is unemotionally.

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A great tip is to try to find words with opposite meanings. Some words have several
meanings, so they have several opposites as well. A good thesaurus will really help
you with this.
And thats all from me today. Dont forget to practice forming compound and
complex sentences. And remember to practice reading and writing in English every
day. Ill see you next time on Study English. Bye.

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